June 27, 2007

Egypt increases its US beef imports

Thanks to the shelf-life technology lent by the Colorado State University's Department of Animal Science, US beef exports to Egypt have been on the rise.

In partnership with the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and US Department of Agriculture, Colorado State has studied the effects of frozen storage on colour, flavour, protein, quality and safety of US beef livers, hearts and kidneys. The results of the study pushed Egypt to ease its restrictions on shelf life of US beef products, providing US exporters with more flexibility.

The study determined there were harmless amounts of protein degradation, lipid oxidation and overall rancidity of frozen livers, hearts and kidneys stored up to 320 days - or almost 10 months.

Colorado State scientists Keith Belk and John Scanga, along with USMEF and USDA Foreign Agricultural Service personnel, presented the study and results to the Egyptian government in November 2005. Based on the report's findings, Egypt changed the shelf-life requirements for hearts and kidneys to seven months from four months in May 2006. Egypt also removed the requirements of having the product reach the country with 50 percent of its shelf life remaining and that the product had to be shipped within two months of production.

Statistics reported through the first three months of this year, US beef variety meat exports to Egypt increased 48 percent from the same period last year to 20,718 metric tonnes, valued at US$17.4 million. Of that total, US beef livers increased 52 percent to 19,556 tonnes, while kidneys and hearts have increased from zero in the first three months last year to 1,000 tonnes of kidneys and 167 tonnes of hearts this year. USMEF correlated this increase as a direct result of the extended shelf requirement.